Sydney’s new millionaire suburbs

Mar 8, 2015

2014 was a stellar year for the Sydney property market. Auction clearance rates were high and annual price growth came in at a staggering 12.4%. With activity like this, it’s not surprising that the average price for a number of suburbs tipped over a million dollars.

In fact, so many suburbs benefited from the gains, that more than one quarter of Sydney’s suburbs are now in the million-dollar club.

The Inner West, Hills District and St George regions were home to a lot of the new entrants.

Sydney’s inner west has been steadily gentrifying over recent years and suburbs such as Balmain and Rozelle have been commanding heavy price tags for some time.

New suburbs to reach average prices of a million dollars or more include the waterfront location of Canada Bay as well as Lewisham, Leichardt and Dulwich Hill. Just making the list at average prices between $1 million to $1.1 million were Erskinville, Marrickville, Newtown, Strathfield South, Enmore and Croyden Park.

The family-friendly Hill’s District added a few suburbs to the list including North Rocks, Carlingford, Castle Hill and Glenorie. Improved transport from the area into the Sydney CBD and other major centres including upgrades to the motorways and railway network will be helping attract buyers.

Finally to the St George region where Kyeemagh, Sans Souci and Carlton all rose to average prices of $1 million plus. Heading over the $1.1 million mark were suburbs Kinsgrove, Bardwell Park and Beverley Park.

So where’s the next millionaire’s row?

Data from CoreLogic RP Data reveals a few suburbs that just missed out on the honors roll in 2014. Arncliffe, for example, finished with a median price of $937,000 whilst Peakhurst wasn’t far off the mark at $917,000.

But can these suburbs expect to tip over a million dollars in 2015?

According to Dr Andrew Wilson, Senior Economist for the Domain Group, “The Sydney housing market is set to remain the best performer with growth likely to be at least twice the inflation rate. A top performing local economy and the continued undersupply of housing will generate consistent buyer activity over the year.”

Dr Wilson predicts that inner and middle ring mid-price range suburban regions are set to continue to record double figure prices growth.

The picture for Sydney is set against a more subdued national property market with growth expected to be more modest. Whilst interest rates are low, Dr Wilson doesn’t believe it will be enough to counter concerns about the performance of the national economy, including rates of unemployment.